Crater Lake, Redwood NP, San Fran
 

Hello. We are planning a trip on the coast. We plan to fly into Eugene or Portland and see Crater Lake. Then drive to San Fran stopping at Redwood on the way. Arriving on Saturday afternoon and leaving the following Sunday morning. How would you break up the time? Where would you stay? It looks like slim pickins as far as lodging.

Thanks!

At Crater Lake I would stay at the Crater Lake Lodge--in a room with a lake view, if possible.

In the redwood area, you might stay at Benbow Inn, which is near Garberville.

I assume you are skipping the Oregon Coast and the Columbia River Gorge because you have visited them previously.

(In case you don't know, Crater Lake is a beautiful place that is accessible only by long drives on two-lane roads that are not as scenic as one would hope.)

Check Steamboat Inn on the Umqua River-
its a not a long drive to Crater Lake-
Its a beautiful resort- nice restaurant

Also check the Prospect Hotel in the town of Prospect - I have friends who stay there every year and think its great- also a short drive to Crater Lake.
Also close by is Diamond Lake resort- have stayed there and the rooms are pretty basic motel rooms - but Diamond Lake is beautiful with walking and biking path around the lake

The Crater Lake Lodge is booked up and the reviews of the motel range from ok to filthy and disgusting. Not great!

This would be our first trip out there. We've actually seen that there is a lot of hiking to do around Crater Lake and we like that we would be able to see it all in one day. Is there something about the Gorge that makes it more worth Crater Lake? We want to spend a couple of days in San Fran so I don't know if we have time to see both. I'll check out the Benbow Inn.

Did you check Steamboat Inn? I dont think the rooms would be filthy and disgusting
Which motel had the filthy rooms?
My friends have always been happy with the Prospect Inn also -
There are some nice waterfall hikes close to Crater Lake and Steamboat Inn

The last time we went to Crater Lake we were told the Lodge was completely booked, but we kept calling reservations and finally there was a cancellation. As a result we got a nice room with a lake view. Don't give up.

People who book and cancel have to do so a specified number of days before. That's when rooms become available.

The same is true at almost all tourist destinations.

sunburn - I'm sorry I didn't see your post before I responded. I didn't mean Steamboat - I will definitely check that one out. The motel is the other park lodging they mention on the park's website. I've read a couple of reviews that mentioned actual mold and dirt. I don't need 4 or 5 stars but can you imagine starting your vacation that way? I just don't want to take that chance. Great idea about checking for cancellations at the Lodge. My husband loves the lodges. What would we do without websites like this?

I took a trip last summer to the entire northwest and had some great experiences:
-i highly reccomend visiting columbia river gorge at least driving to multnomah falls. there are numerous waterfalls on this route and its a short beautiful drive.
-coming over the rim and viewing crater lake for the first time was an unforgettable thing-i was quite shocked and i've been to many awesome places. if you cannot get crater lake lodge go for diamond lake resort just on the outskirts of the park.you will like it. its on a large lake with mountain views, lakeside campfires,etc. and reasonable rates.
-the rogue river has some great stopping points to take in the view on your way towards the redwoods.
-one of the most impressive spots as far as the redwoods is on route 199 heading toward cresent city,ca and its called stout grove-stop there for a great experience-its an old stage coach road which is easily driveable and it gets you into the heart of the redwoods. we spent a couple of hours in this section stopping to take a trail as well. you wont be disappointed.
-we stayed in crescent city at i believe it was called the crescent city motel. its the only one on the beach and i would not pick a differnt hotel. very good prices and the best location. all oceanview rooms too.

Thank you so much. Diamond Lake and Steamboat seem to be the most recommended places for Crater Lake. I had not looked into Columbia Gorge but it’s mentioned so often. Is it near to Crater Lake and the Redwoods? How much time would you say we’d need for there and Redwood? I was thinking one entire day at Crater Lake (hotel night before and after then early am departure for Redwood NP). Then the next 2 nights near Redwood (motel looks GREAT). So that would give us practically 2 full days for Redwood. Too much? I have 3 days in San Fran on the end of the trip and I could shorten that as well if Columbia Gorge is a must.

And dont forget the Prospect
http://www.prospecthotel.com/

if you fly into portland you could take 2 hours and cover the best of the columbia river gorge. this is going to multnomah falls and then returning to portland then head for crater lake lodging via the route out of roseburg. a day at crater lake will suffice if you get up early and go. this is what we did and arrived at crescent city, ca about 5 pm. be sure to see stout grove(redwoods). if given the choice i'd spend a little more time at crater lake and slightly less at the redwoods but i dont want to shortchange the redwoods they're awesome and theres a lot of different areas to visit including along the coast.

If you go out to the gorge, you do not have to backtrack to Portland to get to Crater Lake. After Multnomah Falls, get onto I-84 heading east. Then at Hood River, take HWY 35 down past the back side of Mt. Hood (beautiful drive, BTW) til it meets up with HWY 97 and take that south. Again, a very scenic drive. I-5 is a bit faster, but this way you would not backtrack and you would get to see more of Oregons beauty.

This is harder than I thought it would be!

Hope you were able to cover all that ground in a week, Dohlice.

My advice to anyone else planning a similar trip would be to fly into Portland and limit yourself to going no further south than Crater Lake and perhaps Ashland and Jacksonville in southern Oregon.

Given a week's timeframe, under no circumstance would I want to drive as far into California as San Francisco. Save northern California -- including the Redwoods and the Napa Wine Country -- for a separate trip!

Staying at the Steamboat Inn, just east of Rosburg, OR, is an excellent idea in its own right -- or as an access point to Crater Lake.

We had to book our room at the Crater Lake Lodge a year ahead and then we had to arrange our schedule to work around availability. But our favorite thing in the area was following a map of "waterfalls" mostly scattered to the north of the Lake. Many required short hikes to them, but all were spectacular.

I'd agree with Eugenite that trying to cover all that between Portland and San Francisco is too much for one week.
Actually I'd be more tempted if you really wanted to see the redwoods to go from Crater Lake through Grant's Pass and dip into California, then head back up the Oregon coast to make a round trip from Portland or Eugene. But I can't see any sense in doing that drive to San Francisco if you don't have a few more days to stay there.

dont know if you noticed original posting was June of 2006

Damn, when will I learn to look at the dates of these oddly topped threads?

Still, the issue of running the risk of over-reaching when one plans a trip to unfamiliar places is always relevant.

The title looked familiar so I popped in! After planning that entire trip I just couldn't warm up to the idea. Not getting Crater Lake lodge was a big part of that. We went to Munich for Oktoberfest instead!